Who wants to control the internet ? Hearing in the European Parliament Wed. Feb. 18th.

Who wants to control the internet ? How the Medina report and the Telecom package can affect the internet

http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/default/dok/270/270613.who_wants_to_control_the_internet@en.htm

Hearing
European Parliament – Brussels

European Parliament – Room Petra Kelly ASP01G2
60, Rue Wiertz – 1047 Brussels – Belgium

PRESENTATION

The Greens in the European Parliament have the pleasure to invite you to a conference on internet policy concerning the Telecom package and the Medina report.

The European Parliament is about to take very important decisions that will affect the every day use of the internet by europeans : the telecom package will be adopted in second reading in April, and the Medina report on copyright recommends a very restrictive vision of the web. What is at stake is no less than net neutrality : will MEPs allow discrimination on the internet ?

Net neutrality means that the network should be neutral and can be only bemanaged for technical or security reasons. Some companies dream of being able to manipulate access in order to restrict or give preference to certain services and websites, so as to block access to their competitor’s services. They want to use net management as a tool against competition. This debate will have a global impact since the new US administration is expected to take crucial decisions on this issue over the next year.

This hearing aims at revealing what is really at stake behind the complexity of several European Directives up for consideration by the European Parliament in the coming weeks.

Please join us for this important and informative conference.

Rebecca Harms, Helga Trüpel, Eva Lichtenberger, David Hammerstein
Members of the Parliament ‘s Green/Efa Group

DRAFT PROGRAMME

Academic speaker

• Prof. Dr. Monica Horten, Communications and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster

Free Software

• Alix Cazenave, April (Associaton for the promotion of Libre Software)

Industry speakers

• Broux, IBM
• You Tube
• Benjamin Bayart, French Data Network (French internet provider)

Civil Society & Consumers

• Charles Simon, ISSOC (The Internet Society is an independent international non-profit organisation which provides leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy)
• Anne-Catherine Lorrain, TACD (Transantlantic Consumer Dialogue)
• Costas Rossoglou, BEUC (European Consumers Bureau)
• Graham Taylor, Open Forum Europe
• Jéremie Zimmerman, La Quadrature du Net

REGISTRATION, CONTACT AND INFORMATION

Registration is free but mandatory as to be allowed access to the European Parliament

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English, French, German and Dutch.